Take Mark Zuckerberg for example. He noticed that there was no shared space online for college students to connect and share with one another. The solution? He created Facebook! And you can bet that it wasn’t always an easy journey. But his desire to fill the niche, to solve the problem, is what inspired him and has kept him driving forward ever since.
It’s clear that how we tackle problems says a lot about us, and will lay the foundation for our future success. With this in mind, here’s four unique tactics for problem solving that you need to take on board.
Communication is vital to almost every aspect of life, and this includes your approach to problem solving. Understanding, analysing and reacting to a problem will help you find the right solution. This means listening to feedback from others and taking advice from those who may be able to help.
Solving a problem is not just about being the hero – the one who fixed it. It’s about working together and setting yourself on the right track for future success. In fact, commenting on his own experiences, Richard Branson has said:
“To launch a business means successfully solving problems. Solving problems means listening.”
Becoming frustrated by a problem will not help you to solve it any quicker. So try to remain positive and instead of seeing an issue, see an opportunity. A chance to make things better, to understand what didn’t work the first time and learn from it. This is the key to expert problem solving.
Success and leadership is not about playing the blame game. Pointing the finger at others, even if they were a factor behind the problem, isn’t going to achieve anything. Instead, get straight on with looking into what went wrong, and putting effective plans in place to make it better. Team work is going to be far more beneficial that blaming others.
When problem solving, it’s always important to keep the big picture in mind. Always have your goals at the forefront of everything you do. This will help you to find the most effective solution to any problem you might be facing.